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The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Synopsis

A New Power Is Rising.

Frodo and Sam are trekking to Mordor to destroy the One Ring of Power while Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn search for the orc-captured Merry and Pippin. All along, nefarious wizard Saruman awaits the Fellowship members at the Orthanc Tower in Isengard.

Every story usually consists of three acts; the first is where you introduce your tale & its characters, the second is the middle part where the majority of the plot surfaces & character development takes place, and the third & final act is where you tie up all the loose ends to bring your entire narrative to its final conclusion. Almost everyone has a definite idea of how to begin & end their stories but the middle act is always the hardest part. Because no matter how great the other two acts are, if this part isn't handled correctly, then the overall experience will ultimately amount to almost nothing in the end.

In all seriousness, The Two Towers isn't the cheery and delectable piece of adventure that The Fellowship of the Ring was. However, that doesn't mean that it isn't as satisfying. The danger is higher, the scope is wider, and the characters are in one helluva situation.

Basically, this reminds me of the Empire Strikes Back. It's darker, deeper, and full of choices that will reverberate throughout Middle Earth. However, that doesn't mean that it's necessarily better than its predecessor. The first film feels like an adventure, while the second feels like a challenge.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is probably my second favorite of all time behind the original trip to a galaxy far, far away, and each year I revisit all three films over a short span of time. As the desire to do so came bubbling to the surface recently with the release of the final Hobbit film due out, something strange occurred to me regarded the timing of my yearly Frodo journey. For some reason I seem to always do so around this time of the year, when the temperatures dip below freezing outside, and I have never really considered why that is.

A part of me wondered if it is merely a coincidence, that due to the daunting…

The 2nd film in a trilogy often has the difficult task of building the bridge between the 1st and the 3rd installments! They often get bogged down with heavy storyline and increased character development sacrificing other key elements such as action and of course thrills!

This was not the case for The Two Towers! Peter Jackson once again over delivered on all fronts! The storyline was enriched, characters explored, and yet the cinematography was just as stunning! The battles were glorious, intense spectacles to witness! I was enthralled with the legendary tale unfolding onscreen!

Time was never an issue, never was, not when the story is so engaging! In fact I wish it never had to come to an end!…

The most difficult part of any story, or a series of films that tell one story, is the middle. The beginning sets up the conflict, the end resolves the conflict, but the middle...what does the middle do? Stuff happens, sure...but what? Why? How? When? Where? Who?

Thankfully, Jackson and company dealt with this all-too-common dilemma with the deft ease and perfection as they had when dealing with every other aspect of this story. I have not read the books (though I do own them and will be diving in soon enough), but the word on the street is The Two Towers was the biggest departure from the source material.…

Picking up right where the first one left off, this sequel goes even deeper into Tolkien lore, and doesn’t hold back. All of our beloved hobbits and elves and humans, broken up into three groups, encounter all sorts of creatures and villains as they reach closer to their main goal to rid the one ring that will rule them all.

Among the most memorable new additions of the series is Gollum, a CGI-created creature battling a severe case of schizophrenia. At turns hilarious and pitiful, Gollum is a terrific character, pivotal to the film’s structure and central to the struggling loyalty between the friendship of a weary Frodo and a suspicious Sam. King Theoden, Grimy Wormtongue, and Treebeard are also…

The following is a review for all three Lord of the Rings film, as one:

Where do you start with such a masterpiece? Yes, "The Lord of the Rings" (and when I say "The Lord of the Rings" I'm talking about the three films as a whole) is a masterpiece, in every sense of the word. Not only is it a big budget blockbuster, but it's also a beautifully told story - both artistically and otherwise. I don't know about you, but when I hear about the latest big budget blockbusters, I'm not the type to get excited. Visual effects, 3D and James Cameron's magic movie making machines have never been effective in luring me to the theater. In fact,…

Rewatched The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers for the hundredth time but with the production team commentary track this time around. As with the first movie and its production commentary track, learning about some of the behind the scenes things that happened was really interesting. Marveling at how Gollum was achieved took up a fair amount of time and it's incredible how good it looks over a decade later. Miscellaneous cool tidbits include that the actors for the Dunlendings wildmen were bikers, the actors for the Riders of Rohan were mostly fake-beard-wearing women, and that automated dialogue replacement was used in up to 85% of the movie with only two minor characters not getting some of their dialogue re-recorded at some point.